Amazing culinary feats performed in my kitchen as I learn how to cook just about everything without recipes and pass that knowledge on to you. (If you came here looking for Dejamo's Distracted, you came to the right place.)

Monday, February 26, 2007

Nature's Burger from Fantastic World Foods

Many years ago, when the first Whole Foods opened west of downtown Austin, my housemates and I would put on our safari jackets and go exploring the aisles. In those days there was the grocery store and the health food store and never the twain should meet. The health food stores were mostly vitamins and teas and powders and protein mixes and everything but food. You could get great fruits and vegetables at the Wheatsville Co-op, but you still had to go to the grocery store to get almost everything else. And everything healthy was more expensive at the grocery store. It still is, but I can afford it more. Twenty-five years ago I was a poor student and that extra seventy-five cents for whole wheat flour could buy some apples or milk or some other much needed item.

When Whole Foods opened, what made it stand out to me was that it was the first store to combine healthy, whole foods with more commercial products. I could buy organic vegetables and bulk whole wheat pasta and cans of tomato sauce to make spaghetti, all in one place. They had bulk freshly ground peanut, cashew and almond butter (which, sadly, has pretty much disappeared in the past couple of years here in the Chicago locations; I really miss the peanut butter) and freshly-baked artisanal (although we didn't use that word then) whole wheat french bread which became one of my regular lunches. The bulk section was something to behold - all kinds of wondrous snacks - trail mixes, granolas, nuts, dried fruit, yogurt-covered pretzels, and countless other things. They had several different kinds of brown rice, whole wheat and other grain flours, beans, peas, and different kinds of pasta.

Having grown up on canned fruit and frozen vegetables, I was willing to dip my toes into the world of real, whole, unprocessed foods, but I was unfamiliar with them and there wasn't that much information available. Most of the people I knew who were using them didn't really know what to do with them either. The first tabbouleh salad I ever had was a big bowl full of bulgur with just a little chopped tomato, cucumber and parsley and very little flavor. I had tofu "egg" salad, tofu black bottom pie, and carob covered peanuts, all of which sorely tested my desire to eat a more healthy diet.

But the worst was when I bought bulk veggie burger mix (I believe they called them love burgers or some silly thing like that at the time) so I could try to make veggie burgers at home. I followed the directions, tried to get the gloopy mess into some form of patty shape, and prayed that they would hold together in the pan and not make a godawful mess. But to no avail. And while I would occasionally order a veggie burger at a restaurant, that was the end of my attempts at making them at home.

And then I discovered Boca burgers, which come pre-pattied and hold their shape in the frying pan. But they're expensive and take up room in my freezer so I don't buy them very often.

A few weeks ago all of the Fantastic World Food products were on sale two for the price of one. I've been using their whole wheat couscous for a while so I was happy to stock up on them. They also had their Nature's Burger mix on sale, so I thought maybe it was time to try that again. Surely they had improved on the formula in the twenty-odd years since I last tried to make them.

And I'm happy to say they have improved.

From this:To this:

No fuss, very little muss. And they didn't scorch my skillet so cleanup wasn't a big chore. If you're looking for a more cost-friendly alternative to Boca Burgers, give these a try.

3 comments:

Whole Foods, organic foods, even prepackaged foods that have a healthy bent are a real boon to those of us that are trying to eat healthy. a decade ago, it was near impossible finding these places. What a difference a decade makes.

The Chicago stores have the peanut butter you grind yourself, too, Jen. What I'm talking about are the tubs of bulk peanut, cashew, almond butter and tahini that used to be in all the stores. And Forest Park would be a bit of a hike for me :)

Yes, almostvegetarian, it is much easier to find healthy foods in more places these days than it was in the past. We also have much more information on better ways to prepare them, too.

About Me

I started a knitting blog in 2005, but it quickly evolved into a cooking blog. Since then I have been learning how to be a cook; that is, how to cook on the fly, without having to rely on recipes. I'm not always successful, but I'm always learning and hope to pass what I've learned along to others who are interested in learning how to cook without fear.